


As I Lay Me Down To Sleep

by cordeliadelayne



Category: Primeval
Genre: Getting Together, Kissing, Light Angst, M/M, Secrets, This Will End Badly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-09
Updated: 2016-10-09
Packaged: 2018-08-17 13:37:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8146016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cordeliadelayne/pseuds/cordeliadelayne
Summary: Matt goes after Ethan, but things don't turn out as he'd planned.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ebonyfeather](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ebonyfeather/gifts).



> Written for ebonyfeather. Originally posted to Livejournal in 2012.

“Why shouldn’t I just kill you?”

“Because we're on the same side.”

Ethan eyed Matt warily, but aside from hitting him over the head with a stick there wasn't much else he could do. And he was getting very tired of doing that, especially when he couldn't eat the proceeds, as in this case.

“Fine,” he finally said, and indicated that Matt could join him. Matt nodded gratefully and sat down on the log opposite Ethan, immediately putting out his hands to be warmed by the fire. Ethan tossed over a stick with some meat on it.

“It's some kind of lizard,” he said. “Tastes okay.”

Matt took the stick and gnawed away at the meat. He'd certainly eaten worse in his time.

He and Ethan remained silent for the rest of the meal, the only sounds nearby the occasional roar of a dinosaur, far off in the distance. Ethan apparently hadn't recognised Matt when he'd appeared, which meant that Connor's calculations were correct and Matt had gone back to a point before Ethan joined with Emily and the others, before he'd been to the ARC; perhaps a chance to fix Ethan wasn't as far away as they had all assumed.

“What are you really doing here?” Ethan asked, finally, as he licked his fingers clean.

“What do you mean?” Matt asked. He made a neat pile of small bones to one side of the fire.

“You didn't seem very surprised to see me. Or a dinosaur. Unusual behaviour for someone from the 20th century.”

“21st,” Matt corrected. “I'm from the 21st century.” Not originally he added to himself, but Ethan hardly needed to know his entire life story.

Ethan eyed him even more suspiciously. “Okay,” he said after a moment. “Are you here to take me back?”

“Do you want to go back?” Matt asked. He edged slowly forward until he was sitting next to Ethan, resting his back against the same tree as the other man.

While he waited for Ethan to decide on an answer he looked out at the forest before them. He wasn't entirely sure when or where they were, but it didn’t seem to matter. The sun was lowering in the sky and the temperature was certainly dropping but the fire before them was providing some decent heat and although he could hear predators he hadn't yet seen any evidence that they came this far inland. It would make a very pleasant holiday destination he found himself thinking, before rousing himself out of his drowsy state – it wasn't like him to become distracted like that.

Ethan shifted next to him and Matt tried not to flinch. It had been a while since he's had a warm body that close. It was a luxury he had avoided for as long as he could remember. It wasn't that he was inexperienced – sharing body heat and a quick fumble in an underground bunker was par for the course – but he rarely saw it as anything other than a quick scratching of an itch.

As Ethan's leg hooked over his Matt could sense that he was well and truly out of his depth.

“It's been a long time, huh?” Ethan asked. His eyes were mocking, but there was an uncertainty there too, that spoke to Matt's own fears. He couldn’t imagine the things that Ethan must have done, the way's he'd found to survive. And Matt knew all about survival.

“Will you come back with me?” Matt asked.

Ethan tilted his head, considering. “One meal and your anybody’s? Is that it?” he asked.

The corners' of Matt's mouth lifted in an approximation of a smile. “I just don't want to think of you alone out here. There must be – there must be people who care about you. Who are waiting for you to come home.”

“I don't think so,” Ethan said. He was aiming for bitter but it came out petulant, a child's complaint.

Matt moved forward and took Ethan's head in his hands, moving it so they were staring at each other. “There _are_ people that care,” he said.

“Do you?” Ethan asked, voice barely above a whisper.

Matt hesitated. It wasn't that he didn’t care, but he was lying to Ethan and a relationship built on lies was no relationship at all. Though the fact that he was even thinking in terms of a relationship meant that any resistance was futile.

“Of course I care,” he said, shivering as Ethan pressed as close to him as physically possible. “But there's something that you should know.”

“I don't need to know anything,” Ethan said. “I've been doing this a lot longer than you.”

Matt frowned, trying to understand what Ethan meant, but then Ethan was kissing him and his heart seemed to stop. Ethan's hand moved to the back of Matt's head, holding him in place as he devoured him and Matt couldn't do anything but melt into the kiss, letting Ethan take the lead. Finally Ethan moved away, nipping at Matt's bottom lip and then at his neck, which Matt eagerly surrendered to him.

“I know which century you're really from,” Ethan whispered against Matt's chest and Matt froze, mind fogged with lust suddenly clearing.

“How?” he started to ask, but Ethan silenced him by kissing him again.

“It doesn't matter,” Ethan said. “Do you mind, not knowing how I know?”

“No,” Matt said, surprised to find that he meant it. Now he had to admit to himself that wanting to help Danny hadn't really been the reason why he'd volunteered to go after Ethan. He'd become fascinated by the broken man and and had a fierce desire to put him back together. He suspected that probably meant far more about himself than it did about Ethan.

“Good,” Ethan said. He shifted them both so that Matt was leaning back against his chest.

“Are we _snuggling_?” Matt asked, amused.

He could feel Ethan smile against his neck. “No,” he said, his arms moving even tighter around Matt's chest. Matt closed his eyes and let himself be rocked to sleep. This wasn't over. He had a lot of ground to cover with Ethan, a lot of explaining to do. And not just to Ethan – the others were going to think he'd lost his mind, not least of all Danny and Becker. But right now he could afford to take a night off and tomorrow they'd head back to – not the right time for either of them, but a time that they could make their own.

“I'll take first watch,” Ethan said, and Matt nodded groggily, eyes still closed.

It wasn't what he'd imagined happening, when he'd had his first briefing with Lester and Becker and told them what he'd been planning, but it was definitely more than he could have hoped for.


End file.
